In bloom

Last Friday, I pulled Symantha from school early and we headed up to the tulip festival. It was the perfect day - sunshine, not very many people, and we got to meet Grandma D. there, who works in Mount Vernon. I had forgotten how amazingly beautiful it is! I took a TON of pictures, but here are some of my favorites.

Easter

I'd love to tell you that we took all these cute pictures on Easter, but fortunately we took them the week before Easter, which was actually a pretty nice day. They are rare around here, as all of you in the greater Maple Valley area know, watching the snow fall outside your window tonight. But the girls DID wear these outfits on Easter, so we will pretend it was Easter:)

It was a pretty fun photoshoot with some cute props, like live bunnies and chicks and a lemonade stand. Thanks to Andrea for the heads up on Kristal Joy Photography, and the mini photoshoots she does seasonally.

As for the real Easter, it was celebrated with a great morning worship time and brunch at Mom's. I was pretty impressed with this picture taken by the self-timer! It's like all of my kids know what to do with a camera blinking at them, I don't know how that could be :)

Ages and Stages

It always amazes me how I get so worried about different stages my kids go through, only to be reminded again that IT IS A STAGE. Ever since they were babies, I would worry that the current stage would last forever. I know this is not logical, but there is always this fear in me that they will not sleep through the night for years and years, or will be a picky eater for the rest of their lives, or will complain about doing their homework every day for 13 years. Then the stage passes and you wonder what you ever worried about. Of course, that stage is always replaced by a new stage. Some good, some bad, but kids (and most of us, really) are always changing. Derek is always reminding me that parenting is a marathon, not a sprint.

So, I thought it might be good to remind myself of some of the changes my girls have been going through lately. And maybe I will remember to read this post the next time I am worried that my child's entire future is in danger because of the latest stage:)

Symantha, age 8 1/2

• A few months ago, Symantha was driving me absolutely crazy. She seemed selfish, complaining, argumentative, lazy, loud and often obnoxious a majority of the time. I feel so bad even writing that, but it was the truth! We had many talks, bible studies, etc. with her but I didn't really feel like anything was working. I was very concerned, and felt like we were not getting through to her.
• Today, she is responsible, hard-working, helpful, and her favorite compliment is when we call her, "mature". She has stopped complaining at all about homework, and is doing so much better about getting her chores done without nagging. She asked tonight how else she could help me and went and cleaned Addison's room for me. She loves to read her Bible and is always wanting to share what she is reading. She still loves to cuddle, and loves playing with and helping Addison. You can just see her trying each day to do the right things, and although she isn't perfect, I just love her attitude. 

 Hailey, age 6

• This look pretty much sums it up (although this picture has a hint of a smile on her face because she wasn't REALLY rolling her eyes at me). After Hailey left her horrendous baby stage, she became our easiest and sweetest girl. We couldn't get enough of her. Up until a few months ago, she was sweet, eager to please, hardly ever got in trouble, etc. 
• Lately, Hailey has been antagonizing her big and little sister to no end. She gets totally crazy, and one of the most common phrases heard out of the girls' rooms is, "Stop, Hailey!!" She has also picked up a lovely little whine and bad attitude about everything from the clothes she has to wear to the food she has to eat to the general unfairness of life. It is exhausting sometimes. Plus, she talks ALL THE TIME. So many words each day, I just can't believe all that goes through her mind that she needs to talk about. All of our girls are talkers, so not sure if that one is a stage:) But Hailey is still super responsible, funny and often sweet, so let's leave her with a little nicer picture.
  

Last by not least, there is this little goofball. She couldn't even put her wand down to give me this nice face.

 Addison, age 3

• Addison probably changes the most due to her age. She is different every week! A couple of months ago she wouldn't even consistently sleep through the night, and was always getting us up at 6am. None of our kids did this, and I was not happy about it. But she is sleeping much better now and we usually all get up around 7. 
• Addison has always had her sisters to play with and take care of her, so she has never been good playing by herself. That has been hard this year, with her sisters at school, because she just follows me around and wants to watch me do whatever I am doing, instead of going and playing. This problem was really bad a while ago, and I was trying all sorts of activities to get her interested in playing. She would just sit on the floor and cry if I didn't spend the whole time with her.
• Now, Addison is really into playing babies and playing outside (despite the awful weather - she just bundles up and would prefer to be out there, no matter how cold or wet). She is getting much more imaginative and playing dress-up and pretend. Thank the Lord, I can get a few things done in the morning! She is still so sweet, and Derek and I have realized that with all the girls, age 3-4 has been our favorite. All ages have their benefits, but we love the funny things Addi is always saying and doing right now. I am her favorite person in the world, and that isn't such a bad thing:)

And I love those dimples she has had ever since she was a baby. 

I wish they didn't all grow up so fast, but thankful that there are stages that come and go.

Much appreciated date night

This is what Derek has been doing for weeks now... working on house permits, timber program applications, and drainage plans. Good times.

The fun of all of this is why it was SO nice to have a date night last Friday. My mom had given Derek tickets to see Pete Yorn in concert for Christmas (thanks mom:)), so despite the work he still needed to do, we HAD to have a night away. Megan and Paul were nice enough to keep our kids over night (thanks Megan and Paul:)), so we got to have the best evening. We were finally able to use a gift certificate we had received for Anthony's in Seattle, and had the most relaxing dinner with this view:

And the Pete Yorn concert was one of our favorite concerts ever. We have seen him a number of times and always think he is great, but this time he was celebrating the 10th anniversary of his first album (which we love), so he played it in it's entirety (which we loved even more). Kind of weird to do at a concert, but it was SO good. And those who know me and have made fun of me for my fear of losing my hearing would be so proud - I did not plug my ears at all and we were right in the front. Pretty wild and crazy, I know.

It was just the kind of night we needed and I so appreciated it.

We have all heard how stressful building a house is, and we are just beginning to feel it. Derek has been up to his neck in permit paperwork and let's just say that King County is not his favorite institution. Especially since he had the privilege of working with the WORST drainage guy, and it took an extra few weeks of drawing squiggly lines and pictures of our property to make this guy happy. Unfortunately, I know nothing about any of this stuff, and it is all on his shoulders right now. But the guy finally approved our plan and we should get our permit and begin building in the next couple of weeks - YIPPEE!!

Walk for MS

Sunday morning, the girls and I joined my sister's team of about 27 people to walk for MS. My sister Megan was told she has the onset of Multiple Sclerosis about a year and a half ago, so this had personal meaning for all of us. The walk left from Husky Stadium and was a little over 4 miles. With so many family and friends involved, I was glad it wasn't raining and I was able to bring all three girls. There was hardly any complaining until the very end walking back to the car - those little legs walked a lot. Here we are all ready to go at the beginning. We walked by a man who said I had my own little team already!

The team was named M&M Walkers, after Megan and another childhood friend, Missy. They exceeded their goal of $5,000, which was awesome!

 Along the way, Addison fell asleep all cozy in her stroller. She was so cute in there. Hailey had a ride on Paul's shoulders, but only for a little bit. She really did walk almost the whole thing. Nana handing her M&M's along the way helped.

After about 2 miles, we reached Gasworks park and took some group photos. We missed a few people in these shots, but it covered the family at least.

So glad we were able to do this! We love you Megan!